


snapshot

by quantumducky



Category: The Bifrost Incident - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Extra Treat, F/F, between ragnarok v & terminus, canon compliant sadness, i'm very tired, in which two different mindfucks balance each other out but not perfectly yknow, no idea how to tag this tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:49:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22708768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/pseuds/quantumducky
Summary: Where the story ends, life continues, if only for a while.
Relationships: Loki/Sigyn (The Bifrost Incident)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	snapshot

**Author's Note:**

  * For [patrexes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/patrexes/gifts).



> i'm a simple man i see a prompt for an unexpected hyperfixation in a fic exchange and i black out and write a thousand words when i should be asleep.

When the story of Loki and Sigyn ends, they are frozen in a scene of love, tragedy, and maybe even heroism- one laid out as a willing sacrifice on the engine room’s silver altar, the other kneeling at her side, bent over her, one hand holding her wife’s and the other tightly controlling the flow of Loki’s blood. But where the story ends, life continues- and for them, it continued for the nearly eighty years in which they delayed the arrival in Midgard of the Ratatosk Express, insofar as time still held meaning. Not a full day had passed, tears and kisses and soft words tapering into exhausted quiet, before Sigyn’s hand started to cramp up and she remembered with mild embarrassment the extra hairpin she had on her. Of course, it would have been more romantic to hold the line herself, all the way until she couldn’t anymore. Sigyn, however, was more practical than she was romantic, and kneeling next to the altar was beginning to be very uncomfortable. Just because Loki was in pain didn’t mean they both had to be.

Sigyn was more practical than she was romantic, but she wasn’t as cold as she made herself look, either, and certainly not when it came to her wife. She clipped the hairpin onto the line, ensured it would do its job correctly, stood up and stretched- and then promptly sat back down on the floor near Loki’s head and took her weakly searching hand in both of her own.

“Sigyn…?”

“I’m still with you,” she promised. “Right here.”

Loki didn’t waste energy on saying anything else, just held on to the best of her ability as she slowly exhaled.

This other picture, a little after the first- they couldn’t stay frozen in this one, either. It isn’t easy to know you’ll be spending the rest of your life in the same tiny room talking to the same other person, even if it’s the person you love. Every so often, Sigyn needed to move, to at least do  _ something, _ even if there wasn’t really anything  _ to _ do, and she would give Loki’s hand a long squeeze before standing up to pace.

“Must be nice,” Loki would usually say, wry and raspy. “Being able to get up and walk around.”

There wasn’t much room for it- a few steps this way, then back, or making loops around the altar and trying not to bump anything out of place. Inevitably, she stopped in front of the door that used to lead to the rest of the train, and now, led only to a  _ quicker _ certain death for both the two of them and everyone in the Yggdrasil system.

Maybe, when it was about to be over regardless, Sigyn would open it. Not now. She placed her hands on the door, leaned her forehead against it, and sighed. Her eyes fell shut. They snapped open again a minute later, when Loki, behind her, started to laugh. The sound was quiet at first, but getting stronger, stronger than her voice  _ should _ have been capable of now.

Sigyn walked the few careful steps back to stand next to her. “Loki,” she said- gentle, quietly angry, though not at her.

Loki only kept laughing to herself, staring not so much up at the ceiling as  _ through _ it. “That’s me,” she agreed. “I  _ know _ that’s me… I know so many things now, love, do you want to know them too?”

“Why don’t you tell me?” A good distraction, maybe. She could always hope

This, it seemed, was even funnier than existence in general. “I can’t just  _ tell _ you,” Loki gasped, tears forming in her eyes. “Let me  _ show _ you.” She turned her eyes on her wife, and they were full of colors, and they saw the resistance in Sigyn’s face and turned sharp.

“You don’t want to see. You  _ lied _ to me,” she realized, as she always did, as Sigyn hadn’t yet found a way to prevent, and she looked around as if seeing the engine room for the first time. “You- what is this? What the  _ fuck _ have you done to me?”

Sigyn was ready for her reaction and pinned her down as carefully as she could with her own weight, grabbing her wrists so she couldn’t yank out the line connecting her to the train. “I’m sorry,” she said, voice steady. “This is for your own safety, you aren’t yourself right now.”

“How  _ dare _ you,” Loki snarled. “I am  _ more _ than myself, I- I…”

Her body shuddered and went limp. She blinked rapidly, shaking her head, and when she opened her eyes they were… hers again, returned to their usual color. For a long few seconds, her gaze was clouded, dazed, and she looked at her wife with fear and confusion. Then, finally, recognition lit her face.

“Sigyn,” she sighed, then cracked half a smile. “We have  _ got _ to stop meeting like this.”

Sigyn laughed, soft and incredulous, and kissed her before climbing off and returning to her usual seat.

Loki couldn’t keep her eyes open much longer. “Talk to me,” she mumbled, finding Sigyn’s hand. “Tell me… tell me about something we did together.” She remembered now, but it wasn’t easy to keep it all organized in her head, especially after  _ that _ happened. Hearing Sigyn tell the stories helped put things in their places sometimes.

Sigyn leaned her head on the edge of the altar. “Sure. Which one do you want to hear?”

And she talked until she ran out of words, or until Loki was too tired to listen anymore, and she  _ didn’t _ mention the train or the door or what had just happened. She told herself that later, maybe, they would talk about those things, but for now, she was content to just sit here. There was still time, as long as they were still alive. She could bring it up later. It wasn’t a good time, right now. There would be other chances for serious talk.

So it continued.


End file.
